Mr. Broad Builds His Dream Museum

Maybe Not. Then, Again, Maybe.

The New York Times follows the LA museum soap opera with a story about Eli Broad’s plans to erect his own museum. They seem to be back on. But the Times questions why now when the MOCA faces real funding problems:

The confluence of events once again raises a question that came to the fore as far back as 2003, when Mr. Broad first announced his vast gift to the county museum for construction of the $56 million Broad Contemporary: How many institutions devoted to contemporary art might the Los Angeles area need?

The answer is not an easy one for a city that is relentlessly devoted to seeking out the next new thing. The contemporary art market has boomed in recent years, and local museums like the Hammer, the Getty and the Huntington Library, in addition to the county museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, have expanded their contemporary programming at the same time. [ . . . ]

All this comes at a time when museums are increasingly competing for capital:

“I wish people were throwing money at the museum,” Michael Govan, the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, said in an interview on Wednesday. “But that’s not happening.”